Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Coniacian–Maastrichtian
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O
S
D
C
P
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Skull and pectoral fin fossils of Protosphyraena
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Pachycormiformes
Family:
Pachycormidae
Genus:
Protosphyraena
Leidy, 1857
Species
Protosphyraena perniciosa
Protosphyraena bentoniana
Protosphyraena nitida
Protosphyraena is a fossil genus of swordfish-like marine fish, that thrived worldwide during the Upper Cretaceous Period (Coniacian-Maastrichtian). Though fossil remains of this taxon have been found in both Europe and Asia, it is perhaps best known from the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation of Kansas (Late Coniacian-Early Campanian). Protosphyraena was a large fish, averaging 2–3 metres in length. Protosphyraena shared the Cretaceous oceans with aquatic reptiles, such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, as well as with many other species of extinct predatory fish. The name Protosphyraena is a combination of the Greek word protos ("early") plus Sphyraena, the genus name for barracuda, as paleontologists initially mistook Protosphyraena for an ancestral barracuda. Recent research shows that the genus Protosphyraena is not at all related to the true swordfish-family Xiphiidae, but belongs to the extinct family Pachycormidae.
Protosphyraena is a fossil genus of swordfish-like marine fish, that thrived worldwide during the Upper Cretaceous Period (Coniacian-Maastrichtian). Though...
the related Protosphyraena, it possessed an elongated rostrum. Some sources have recovered it as a potential junior synonym of Protosphyraena, although...
pachycormid fish Protosphyraena; the English and Italian species are only known from rostral fragments that were previously assigned to Protosphyraena. It is one...
to be the sister group of the Aspidorhynchiformes. Reconstruction of Protosphyraena perniciosa Life restoration of Leedsichthys Life restoration of Ohmdenia...
may even be a relative of sturgeons. Similarly, the pachycormid fish Protosphyraena and the plethodid fish Rhamphoichthys from the Late Cretaceous had both...
Cimolichthys, the saber-toothed herring Enchodus, and the swordfish-like Protosphyraena are represented in the northern Tethyan margin. The southern Tethyan...
Cimolichthys, Saurocephalus, Saurodon, Gillicus, Ichthyodectes, Xiphactinus, Protosphyraena and Martinichthys; and the sharks Cretoxyrhina, Cretolamna, Scapanorhynchus...
pectoral fin spines from fish similar to "Pelecopterus" (now known as Protosphyraena). Karpinsky's 1899 monograph on Helicoprion noted that the bizarre nature...
the fossil site, and a wide variety of fish including swordfish-like Protosphyraena, as well as the predatory fishes Pachyrhizodus, Xiphactinus, Ichthyodectes...
species of Hypsocormus, and is more closely related to Orthocormus + Protosphyraena, and thus has sometimes been referred to in open nomenclature as Orthocormus...
F75.05.06). A plethodid, originally reported as Bananogmius evolutus. Protosphyraena P. gladius Hyde County, South Dakota. DeGrey Formation. SDSM 66288 (major...
fish Big-game fishing Marlin fishing Marlin (magazine) Gray's paradox Protosphyraena (fossil) Scombridae United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement The Old Man...
hardi A tselfatiiform Pachyrhizodus P. caninus A crossognathiform Protosphyraena P. gladius A pachycormid Saurodon S. leanus An ichthyodectiform Stratodus...
convergence with modern billfish and the co-occurring pachycormid fish Protosphyraena, although not to the extent of its close relative, Rhamphoichthys. Sepkoski...
time in the Seaway of the western US. The swordfish-like bony fish Protosphyraena has been preserved in the Navesink Formation. The turtle Bothremys also...
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